Peek inside Houston's luxury home foreclosures, including a mansion on River Oaks Blvd.

Darla Guillen Gilthorpe, Houston Chronicle

Published
10:11 am CDT, Monday, September 24, 2018

>>See the most expensive home foreclosures in the Houston area.

>>See the most expensive home foreclosures in the Houston area.

Photo: Nan And Company Properties/Christie's International Real Estate

Photo: Nan And Company Properties/Christie's International Real Estate

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>>See the most expensive home foreclosures in the Houston area.

>>See the most expensive home foreclosures in the Houston area.

Photo: Nan And Company Properties/Christie's International Real Estate

Peek inside Houston's luxury home foreclosures, including a mansion on River Oaks Blvd.

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Home foreclosures often conjure images of dilapidated tear-downs, or houses in severe need of repairs and renovation. However, the Bayou City is teeming with turn-key ready, luxury properties under foreclosure from the suburbs to River Oaks.

Some experts claim there's a national increase in foreclosures again, the first time since 2015. That's especially true in markets vulnerable to natural disasters, including Houston.

"When big weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes and hail hit, many homeowners suffer financial hardship from various sources such as lost wages and losses due to inadequate insurance," said Mark Gibbas, president and CEO at WeatherSource, a technology company that provides global weather data. "And while the impact on homeowners can be severe, hurricanes like Harvey can change the landscape of the housing market region wide, including shifts in the number of available homes and shifts in home values."

The good news is the local home market is healthy, overall, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. That organization releases monthly assessments of year-over-year data, including the price of homes this month compared to 2017.

This year they explain that it's nearly impossible to offer an accurate look because Hurricane Harvey halted home sales for much of 2017's August and September. They determined, with additional analysis that takes the storm into account, that our home sales would still have seen improvement if Harvey hadn't affected the area.

"We all know how catastrophic Harvey was and how incredibly resilient our community has been, so HAR has taken great care to gauge Houston's August housing market performance as accurately as possible given the data distortions caused by the disaster," said HAR Chair Kenya Burrell-VanWormer with JPMorgan Chase. "We will likely see similar distortions in the September numbers, as Harvey's effects lingered, however current market conditions are healthy, with single-family home sales and rentals up despite constrained inventory."

Take a visual tour of these luxury foreclosed homes in the gallery above:

River Oaks: 1708 River Oaks Blvd.$9.75 million |15,000 square feetBuilt in 1994, this house is one block from the River Oaks Country Club. It boasts a heated indoor swimming pool, wine cellar and a secondary catering kitchen.

Oak Forest East Area: 1606 Du Barry Lane$802,500 | 3,500 square feetThis 2017 house has never been lived in. The new construction has custom upgrades and is close to great local shops and restaurants.